Don't freak out
by Muggles Can't See This
Summary: Chuck and Sarah decide to explain the past four years of their lives to Morgan, Ellie and Awesome. This will go through every episode, starting from the pilot, to the end of season 4. Set after Chuck and Sarah's honeymoon, but they haven't told Casey and Morgan about Carmichael Industries yet.
1. Prologue

Don't freak out

Taking a deep breath, Chuck took his seat on the gaming chair that had been dragged next to the desk chair from their room that Sarah was sitting on. She gave him a small smile as he looked up to face the three people who were crammed together on the sofa. It had been just over twenty minutes since Chuck and Sarah had unexpectedly stormed into the Woodcombe residence and demanded that its owners follow them home, and in that time they had dumped the couple on the sofa, grabbed Morgan from Casey's and rearranged the furniture so that they could face their audience.

Chick cleared his throat nervously before beginning. "Ellie, Awesome, sorry for intruding like this. I know it's a bit sudden."

The pair shared a confused look. "Um… no worries, bro. Just, what was so important that you had to come drag us in here after an eighteen hour shift and a day of looking after Clara?" asked Awesome, gesturing to his daughter, who sat comfortably in her mother's arms.

"And interrupt a Halo marathon!" chipped in Morgan, who was sitting on Ellie's left hand side.

Ellie rolled her eyes at him while Chuck continued. Motioning to himself and Sarah, he said, "Well, we've decided to explain everything. And by everything, I mean _everything._" Seeing that Chuck wasn't doing a very good job of explaining himself, Sarah decided to step in. "What he means is that we're going to explain everything that's been going on in Chuck's life over the past four years. All of the secrets. All of the missions. Everything."

After a moment of letting this sink in, there were simultaneous cries of "Awesome!" from the two men on either side of Ellie. Meanwhile, she was looking up at her brother with a look that clearly showed that she'd found a problem. "But, we don't have clearance! I mean, surely you're not actually allowed to just tell us all of it."

_Of course she thought of that,_ thought Chuck with a sigh. "Well, technically we're breaking the law," he said casually. "That's why what's said in this room will _stay_ in this room." He said, staring pointedly at Morgan. "Oh, and we would have explained everything ages ago but there was a huge chance of the CIA getting wind of it, you know, what with the hidden cameras in our apartment and all."

This time, Morgan was the one to interrupt, giving his best friend a slightly confused look. "Hang on a sec there, buddy. You're saying that there are cameras… where I used to live?"

"Well, not anymore, but yeah."

"Watching me?"

"Um… Yeah?."

"You do remember that I sleep 'au naturale' right?!"

"Oh, crap."

There was a collective groan from the others in the room as those exact words popped into their heads. Morgan continued. "So now some unknown CIA dude has seen my… my… you know!"

Turning bright red, Chuck murmured "Not some unknown CIA dude."

He said it so quietly, Morgan almost missed it. Almost. "What? Who watches the footage then?!"

"Um… Casey."

"CASEY? CHUCK, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

He never got the chance, though. Just as he was trying to get off the sofa, Sarah put a hand on his shoulder and fixed him with a stare that made him shrink back into the upholstery.

Chuck, on the other hand was looking at him apologetically. He hadn't been worried by Morgan's threat. He was just embarrassed for the guy. Once Morgan had calmed down, Sarah went back to her seat. Then she chose to put him out of his misery.

"Actually, Morgan; once I moved in, Casey started turning off the cameras at night. He said something about not wanting to have to scratch his own eyes out. And there were never any cameras in your bedroom to begin with. Plus, seeing as Chuck was officially a spy by that point, there weren't nearly as many cameras as there had been at the start."

"Seriously? You tell me this now? What is it with you people?" Ellie and Awesome, however, breathed sighs of relief at the revelation, obviously having come to the conclusion that cameras had been in their bedroom when they still lived there.

"Sorry dude." Chuck said.

Ellie and Awesome, who had been silent throughout the Morgan situation, chose that moment to join the conversation again. Ellie spoke first. "Okay, okay. Now that that's all sorted, why are you telling us this now? I mean, it's still illegal and the CIA could still find out!"

"Well, yeah. But you deserve to know. We've quit the CIA now but we were still two of their best agents. When Casey committed "treason" they just fired him. If they find out, which they _won't_, nothing too bad will happen. Hopefully."

Ellie looked sceptical but she didn't say anything, so Chuck assumed it was safe to carry on.

"Okay. If no one has any other questions, can we _please_ get on with this?" Nobody said anything. "Thank you." This was so not going to plan. They hadn't even started yet and he already had a headache. "Okay, like I said before, Sarah and I are going to tell you everything that has happened to me over these years. You deserve to know. That way, hopefully you can forgive me for all the times I bunked on you.

"So, where better to begin than at the star-"

"Wait!"

"Morgan!" cried everyone else.

"Sorry guys, but we forgot something. Popcorn!"

"You have got to be kidding me", muttered Chuck as Morgan bounded off the sofa and into the kitchen. "Morgan! This isn't a movie!"

"No, it's better! We get first-hand accounts!"

Chuck opened his mouth to call Morgan back into the living room but Ellie said, "Don't even bother, Chuck."

"Is butter popcorn okay with everyone?" came a cry from the kitchen.

With an exasperated groan, Chuck said, "It's fine! Just hurry up!"

After the popcorn was done and everyone had settled down again, Chuck spoke again. "So, we are going to tell you everything, but first you need to promise us something. Some of our missions weren't exactly… safe. So there's one condition" He turned to look at Ellie now. "Don't freak out."


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Sorry for the huge wait but thank you to everyone who followed, favourited and reviewed. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck.**

**Chapter One**

"Alright," Chuck said, "Let's get started. I guess the best place to start would be the day I first met Sarah."

"Ah, the ballerina incident!"

"Yes Morgan, the ballerina incident", replied Chuck, sharing a smile with Sarah. Ellie and Awesome looked slightly lost already so Chuck hurried on before any more questions could be asked. "I'd better fill you in. This all began on my birthday. You know, the one where you planned a party for me but then Morgan and I tried to escape because you had invited all of _your _friends."

Ellie gave him a sheepish grin. "I had to do something to celebrate your birthday!"

"I'm just kidding, sis. I really did appreciate the effort. Sorry for trying to escape."

"Apology accepted."

"Thank you. So, after the party, Morgan and I were doing a little celebrating of our own. What better way to celebrate than a gaming night? We were on the Xbox when I got an email. From Bryce Larkin." Chuck, who had been looking down at his hands as he spoke, glanced up to see identical looks of shock on Ellie and Awesome's face, with a bit of anger mixed in on Ellie's part once she got over the shock. No doubt she was thinking the same thing he had at the time: 'How dare Bryce email him after so many years without so much as a hello, after what he had done?'

Morgan, on the other hand, was munching happily on his popcorn. He didn't seem the least bit surprised at the news of Bryce's email, which made sense since he had been there when it had arrived. He was, however, staring fixedly at Chuck, hanging on his every word despite that fact.

"Um… right." Chuck said, doing his best to ignore the fact that Ellie looked like she was about to bring up exactly what was on her mind as her face quickly coloured in anger. He ploughed on. "Do you all remember Zork?" Morgan was the only one to nod his head. Awesome had recovered from his shock but was trying to calm down Ellie. He looked especially fearful because she currently had their daughter in her arms. Fortunately, Ellie appeared to be regaining control of herself, deciding that now was not the time to burst everybody's eardrums. Chuck breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, Zork was a text-based video game and back in Stanford, Bryce and I programmed our own version of it. When I opened the email, the game's opening line appeared and I had to complete the sequence to see the rest of the email. That was around the time I sent Morgan home. After I typed in 'Attack troll with nasty knife,' a bunch of images started flashing on the screen. For the life of me, I can't remember what they were of. I think one of them might have been a pie." Chuck got lost in his own thoughts about pies and pi until Sarah nudged him gently with her foot. Shaking his head slightly to clear it, he said, "Sorry, got a bit distracted. Where was I? Oh yeah, so I don't know how many pictures there were or how long they were on that screen but the next thing I knew, it was morning and Morgan was bending over me saying something, but I have no idea what. Can't remember."

"Dude, I can't even remember," Morgan said through a mouthful of popcorn, accidentally spraying everyone with bits of it.

"Well it's not important anyway. My head felt kind of weird that morning, and it was pounding, but I just assumed that Morgan had spiked the punch."

Said best friend held up his hands in mock surrender. "Guilty as charged."

"Morgan!" Ellie shrieked. "My friends were at that party!"

"Sorry Elle, but it was Chuck's birthday! I was just trying to add a little extra, well, punch. Pun intended," Morgan said with a grin.

"Hilarious. You should be a comedian," Ellie said, voice dripping sarcasm as she sent him a glare. She shifted Clara who had fallen asleep in her arms and said to her brother, "Just carry on, Chuck."

Chuck's eyes flitted nervously from his best friend to his sister and back again. Sarah put a reassuring hand on his, which was resting on his knee. She seemed completely at ease; none of this had bothered her.

"Why don't I take it from here? I come in soon anyway."

"Okay. Nothing really happened between waking up and meeting Sarah anyway. I just went to work."

"Right, so the Buy More had been open for a few hours already before I went in. All I knew was that Bryce had gone rogue, stolen th- something important, and emailed that thing to Chuck."

"Wait, did you say 'gone rogue'?" interrupted Ellie.

"Like, 'he was CIA' rogue?" asked Awesome.

"Oh yeah, I can't believe we forgot to mention that", Chuck said.

"Forgot? _Forgot?_ Right, because I'm sure it's super easy to forget something like that. It's just the average story of 'the roommate gets the good guy kicked out of college, sleeps with his girlfriend, joins the CIA, then goes rogue and drags his 'friend' into the whole mess in the process' after all." Ellie had tried to keep her voice down for Clara's sake, but that didn't mean that Chuck wasn't terrified all the same. He hadn't expected anyone to get so angry. Not this early on, at least.

"Look, Ellie, I really did forget. Can we please just get on with it or we'll be here forever. And _please_, try not to interrupt."

Ellie's anger seeped out of her and she deflated like a balloon. Somehow, Clara was still sleeping soundly. "Fine. Sorry, I didn't mean to get so worked up. I guess I'm just tired."

"Don't worry about it. Why don't we take a break?"

"No, I'm okay. Just give me a moment to get Clara's buggy. She's getting kind of heavy."

Devon was already on his feet. "I'll get it, babe. Be back in a moment." He was out the door before Ellie could even say thank you.

In less than five minutes, Clara was secured in her pram hugging the toy that played Jeffster's 'Send Me On My Way', and Awesome was back on the couch with his left arm around his wife and the pram on his right side.

Seeing that everyone had settled down, Sarah continued with her story. "Okay, like I said before, I only knew that Bryce had sent this… thing, to a certain Chuck Bartowski."

Ellie frowned in thought. That was the second time that Sarah had avoided saying what was in that email, and Chuck hadn't specified either. She did as Chuck had asked though, and did not bring it up.

Sarah was still talking. "My mission was to find Chuck and see what he knew. If I could somehow find the contents of that email as well, even better. I'd been given a little info on Chuck beforehand. You know, just the basics: went to Stanford, aced every class, brilliant with anything to do with technology... not so brilliant with the ladies. Can't see why though." She muttered that last part quietly to herself.

"Hey!" protested Chuck, obviously not having heard her last comment.

Sarah grimaced inwardly. "Sorry Chuck. I'm just telling you what the CIA told me. But do you really think that I agree with the last bit? Come on, you had me in the space of about five minutes!"

That did the trick. Chuck's face split into one of his trademark Bartowski grins. Those were infectious, but this wasn't just a normal Bartowski grin. This one was the biggest and the brightest. It was the one he saved especially for Sarah. Oh, how she loved that smile.

Sarah was barely aware of the three other people in the room as she felt herself getting drawn in to the man she loved. The moment was broken as Morgan cleared his throat. "Sorry to interrupt but I sensed a Charah moment coming, what with the staring into each other's eyes and all."

The pair blinked and turned away from each other, slightly embarrassed, well on Chuck's part anyway, but their hands remained together, as they had put them earlier. They decided to ignore Morgan's use of their 'ship name' as he had once called it. They had heard that name used on multiple occasions by both Morgan and Casey, not that they had any idea why they would have a boat named after them. "Sorry buddy, forgot you were there for a moment. Sarah, you were say-"

Just then, they were interrupted by a loud knock at the front door. Sighing, Chuck got up from his gaming chair and went to see who it was. After looking through the peep hole, he opened the door to reveal a surly as ever Casey and a rather confused-looking Alex.

Chuck stood aside to let them in, saying as he did so, "Hey Casey. I thought you weren't coming; too many lady feelings."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't going to let you downplay my role in the past four years. Plus I think my daughter has a right to hear the truth as well."

"Hey, guys, I actually have no idea what I'm doing here so if someone could explain, that would be great." Alex said this while also trying to wave Morgan away. Once he had realised who their guests were, Morgan had gotten off the sofa and taken Alex's hand, attempting to offer her his seat.

"Morgan, hold on a moment. I'm trying to figure out what's going on." She held up a hand, signalling for him to stop motioning towards the couch.

Sarah spoke from her place on the desk chair. "Casey, you explain."

"Fine," Casey said with a grunt. He turned to Alex. "Bartowski and Walker –"

"It's not Walker anymore, remember?" Sarah held up her left hand to show him the wedding ring that rested there.

"Whatever. Anyway, those two decided to tell these three," he pointed to Ellie, Awesome and Morgan, "all about the past four years of their lives. But seeing as I am also in this little story of theirs, I think it's only fair that you hear everything as well."

"Oh… well I don't mean to intrude."

"You're not. Let me just get you a chair."

"I'll get it, Chuck," said Morgan, finally letting go of Alex's hand.

Casey got himself a chair from the dining table while Morgan got one for Alex. "Are you sure you don't want to sit on the couch?" he asked.

"Morgan, I'm fine with the chair."

"Are you-"

"Yes!"

"Okay, but if you want the couch, just tell me."

"I will. Thanks," Alex replied. She couldn't help but smile at Morgan's behaviour, knowing that he was trying to prove himself to her father. She had noticed him amping up the manners slightly whenever they were all in the same room. "Um, would someone mind filling me in? I don't know how much I've missed."

As Casey placed his seat on Sarah's other side, Chuck said, "You didn't really miss all that much. Basically, four years ago, on my birthday, I got an email from an old friend of mine, Bryce Larkin. Bryce was-"

"Yeah, I know who he is." Alex looked at Morgan in answer to Chuck's questioning glance.

"Of course. Well, it turns out that Bryce was also in the CIA. He had gone rogue and stolen something important from the CIA and emailed it to me. When I opened the email, it made loads of images flash on the screen. Next thing I knew, it was morning and Morgan was waking me up. I didn't feel much different so I went to work. Sarah was just explaining that her mission was to find me, because of the email, and see what I knew. Any questions?"

"Just one. What's so important about some pictures?"

"Uh, we'll get there. If there's nothing else, Sarah go ahead."

"Thanks. So like I was saying, I didn't have much information to go on, but I had a picture of Chuck, his address, where he worked etcetera. That meant it wasn't very hard to find him. I couldn't just walk in to the Buy More for no reason though, so I purposely broke the phone the CIA had given me for this mission, just so Chuck could fix it. I went in, saw him at the Nerd Herd desk and headed over. It took about thirty seconds to actually fix the phone so I just stood and spoke to Chuck and Morgan for a minute. That is, until a customer came along with his daughter. Apparently, the guy had tried to record his daughter's ballet show with a digital recorder, but he forgot the tape and couldn't figure out why it wasn't playing back. Because of the guy's idiocy, and because the girl looked really put out about it, Chuck set up The Wall, played the right music and rerecorded the girl's performance right in the middle of the Buy More. Fortunately, when Chuck was on his way back to the Nerd Herd desk to come and talk to me again, Harry Tang stepped in his way. I'm sure you all remember him."

"Um, no."

"Right, sorry Alex. I don't really know all that much so why don't you tell her Chuck?"

"Well there isn't really that much to tell. Harry was just a jerk who used to work at the Buy More. He became assistant manager for a little while but that was only because I didn't show up for my interview. We'll get to that later. When he stopped me the time that Sarah mentioned, he was going on about something like wasting time and the Buy More having its own currency. Huh, Big Mike seems to have a habit of hiring terrible assistant managers."

"Wait, _used_ to work there? What happened to him?"

Casey couldn't help but smirk as he said, "You'll find out soon enough."

"So," Sarah continued, "like I said, he stepped in the way; which let me sneak out of the store unnoticed. In case you're wondering why I left in the middle of a conversation if I was supposed to be getting information from Chuck, I had expected it to be an easy job. According to the CIA, Chuck was an easy mark. No offence," she added as an afterthought. "I had expected to go in there and just be in control of the entire situation. Normally, what with the seduction training and all, I would have no trouble with guys like the Buy More employees. Pus, judging by the guys' reactions at having a girl in the store, I think it was quite a fair judgement to make. But that's why I was so surprised that Chuck would walk away from our conversation so easily to go and help a customer. What especially surprised me was the way he did it. In the spy life, you don't really meet many guys who would go to all of that trouble for one person. Needless to say, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. So I settled for putting a card with the number for the phone that Chuck had just fixed on the Nerd Herd desk. Then I got out. I headed back to my hotel room and came up with a plan. It wasn't a great one, but it was something. You should probably tell everyone the next part Chuck. Well, you should if it's what I think it is."

Chuck cast a curious glance in her direction. He knew what he would have brought up next, but she must be thinking of something else. There was no way she could know about _that_, could she? He obliged anyway, and proceeded to describe the rest of his day. "That day at work had been a toughie. There was a computer virus going around called the Irene Demova virus, named after the Serbian porn star. Unfortunately, that meant that we would be getting a lot of calls. At the end of my shift, Morgan came home with me for some reason. When we got there, there was some sort of ninja dressed in black, holding my computer. I'm not gonna lie. He was strong. We didn't stand a chance."

"What are you saying, Chuck? We put up a heck of a fight! Did you ever see the mysterious ninja come back?" Chuck rolled his eyes at his best friend. Meanwhile, Sarah tried and failed to supress a laugh.

Turning to her, Chuck asked, "What's so funny?"

"I just can't believe that even after all this time, you still haven't figured it out."

"Figured what out?"

This time, Sarah didn't even attempt to hide her amusement and her melodic laughter rang out through the room. "Chuck, remember what I said before? About how it would be good if I could find the contents of that email? Then, remember after our date, how I asked you if you had a backup drive on your computer?"

Understanding dawned on Chuck face. Eyes wide, he asked, "It was you?"

Sarah nodded in response. "Sorry about the computer."

Chuck waved away her apology. "Why did you never tell me?" He didn't look angry, just genuinely curious.

"I don't know. It was such a small thing compared to everything that followed. It must've slipped my mind."

That was good enough for Chuck. "I'm not surprised. Those first few days were chaotic. Actually, scratch that. These past four years have been chaotic. And don't worry about the computer; Morgan was the one who hung that shelf."

"Hey! The shelf was doing fine until a huge, heavy computer got dumped on it. You can't blame me for it breaking." Morgan turned to Sarah. "I can't believe it was you all along. How did you even get in?"

"Seriously, moron? You're asking how she got in? Two possible explanations: One, you left the Morgan Door open; two, she's a spy!"

"Alright Casey. Jeez, it was only a question."

"You know, I seem to recall something about you being the superior lock picker," Chuck told Sarah with a grin.

"Damned pentothal," Casey muttered.

A laugh escaped Sarah's mouth. "What was that?"

"Nothing," Casey replied with a growl.

"Hey guys? Enough with the private jokes 'cause the rest of us have no clue what you're talking about. Although the lock picking thing does answer my question."

"Sorry Morgan. As I was saying, we got home and found a ninja, who we now know to be Sarah, trying to steal my computer. A fight ensued, during which Morgan accidentally hit me with just about every object within reaching distance."

"Nice goin' there moron," interjected Casey.

"Well at least I actually tried to fight! Chuck just stood there!"

"Speaking as 'the ninja', I'm surprised he could walk at all. Especially after the second hit."

Chuck winced as he remembered where the second object had hit him. "That would've been a good time to deploy The Morgan. Then again, after what happened the last time I used it, it was probably a good thing I didn't."

"Wait, The Morgan? You mean the move you used to use when girls beat you two up in high school?" asked Ellie, speaking up for the first time since Alex and Casey arrived.

"Girls used to beat you up?" chipped in Alex, amused.

Morgan shuddered. "Those were dark days."

"They wouldn't have done it if you just left them alone. And they only beat me up because I defended you."

"Yeah, yeah. Add that to the list of things I owe you for. Get on with the story though." Morgan was looking extremely uncomfortable with sharing his past experiences with girls in front of his current girlfriend. Chuck took pity on him, although he had a bit of trouble stifling a laugh at his expression, and did as he was asked.

"Sure. So, back to the ninja. Before the fight, Sarah had put the computer on a shelf that Morgan had hung. Just as my luck would have it, the shelf held it for the entire fight. Then it broke, meaning that the computer fell on the floor and smashed. That was the last we saw of Sarah as the ninja. The next day, I brought what was left of my computer to work, where it was deemed dead. Sarah came back to the Buy More a while later, saying that she'd just moved here from Washington and- wait. _Very_ sneaky of you Sarah. The CIA headquarters are in Washington, are they not?" Sarah just smiled at him. "Nice cover story. Anyway, she said she wanted someone to show her around, so we arranged a date. We went to a club after having dinner at El Compadre. For some reason, Sarah dragged me out onto the dance floor and started doing all these _really _sexy dance moves."

"Oh yeah, about that, Casey decided to show up at that point with a few of his NSA goons. You see, Casey and I are actually from separate agencies, but both our agencies wanted Chuck. We should have been enemies, and we were at the start. Didn't you try to run me over?"

"Dad!"

"We were enemies!"

"It's okay. It didn't work anyway so I forgive you Casey. Chuck, the dancing was so that I could take care of the men without you noticing. That's why I dragged you outside after," Sarah told the two men on either side of her before turning back to everyone else. "Unfortunately, I hadn't actually taken care of Casey, meaning that there was a car chase which led to him crashing into the Herder and us trying to get away on foot. I only just managed to avoid getting run over by raising a set of barriers to stop the SUV. When Chuck and I went up to the roof of the nearest building to get picked up by an emergency helicopter, Casey followed us. Alright, before I carry on I need to clear something up. Alex, do you know what The Intersect is?"

"No."

Chuck held up a hand to stop Sarah, who had been about to launch into an explanation, saying, "Wait, are we telling them now? I wanted to leave them hanging a little longer; you know, add a bit of suspense and mystery."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Tough luck, I've said it now."

"Said what?" Devon had taken a break from making sure that Clara was still sleeping and was now looking from Chuck to Sarah. "Did I miss something? 'Cause I'm pretty sure you only asked if Alex knew about The Intersect."

Ellie gasped. "That's it! That's what was in the email!"

"I knew we should've stretched it out longer. Oh fine. Yes Elle, Bryce emailed me The Intersect." The revelation drew two exclamations of "What!" and "Seriously?" from Morgan and Devon.

Chuck smiled proudly. "Though I've got to say, it did still have quite the effect."

Alex was trying desperately to make sense of everything. Based on the others' reactions, she could tell that this Intersect thing was important, but no one seemed inclined to tell her why at the moment. "Er… Hello? I still don't know what this thing is, so, can someone explain?"

Chuck was busy laughing at the effect the information had had on everyone and Sarah was busy laughing at the effect their reactions had had on her husband. That meant that the only person who had actually heard Alex was her own father. After taking a moment to groan at the scene before him, Casey turned to answer his daughter's question.

"The Intersect is a database of all of the government's secrets. After 9/11, the NSA, the CIA and everyone else were told to share all of their information. That information includes things like which countries we know to have nukes, details on all of the criminals and terrorists who have ever set foot on American soil and even some that we know of who haven't, files about attempts on the president's life, blueprints for just about every building in America, you get the picture. So they encoded a bunch of images with those secrets and put them all in a computer and kept the computer in a room at a CIA facility, not the best idea, I know. Larkin broke into that room, called The Intersect Room- creative isn't it? - And stole The Intersect, meaning he uploaded it onto a device and then emailed it to Chuck here. Unfortunately, he opened the email. Those images he mentioned before actually contained all of our secrets. As a dumb idea on top of another dumb idea, the CIA had also decided to try creating something known as The Human Intersect. Basically, they planned on getting their best agents and downloading the Intersect into their brains. Their theory was that having an agent with all of that information would make briefings unnecessary. They wouldn't have to explain mission details like who the target is because the agents would already know all of it. But, the CIA's method of downloading The Intersect was to just look at the pictures. So, you see the secrets, you know them. And Chuck saw them. Let me introduce you to The Human Intersect." Casey finished with a lazy wave of his hand towards Chuck.

Everybody else had come out of their various states of shock and hilarity at some point during Casey's explanation and four sets of eyes now turned to look at Chuck, who sat squirming uncomfortably under their gazes. Sarah and Casey were the only ones who weren't looking at him, but neither of them did anything to draw the attention away from Chuck.

It was Alex who broke the silence. "So… so you're saying that Chuck has a computer in his brain? And he knows every single government secret because of it?"

Chuck spoke before Casey had the chance. He didn't really like the idea of telling everyone about the situation with Decker taking The Intersect before he had to. "Pretty much. Whenever I see something that is in The Intersect, I remember all of this information that I really shouldn't know. I have to admit it was pretty confusing the first day. I think I flashed – that's what we call it when I remember all of that information – about three or four times the day after opening Bryce's email."

"And you didn't question your sanity?"

"Oh, trust me Ellie, I did. I thought I was going crazy."

"What did you flash on?" Morgan asked excitedly, hand diving back into the popcorn bowl.

"The usual. For example, the NSA had intercepted some blueprints of a hotel here in LA and the CIA had intercepted the schematics for the bomb that was in that hotel. Incidentally, I also flashed on a Serbian demolitions expert in the Large Mart. That demolitions expert then ended up being the one with the bomb. It's funny how everything seemed to fit together."

"There was a demolitions expert in the Large Mart?"

"You went to the Large Mart? Dude! They are the enemy!"

"Uh, yes to both of those and I'm going to ignore that other part Morgan. I'm not in the mood for a debate about why I went to our rivals for locks and whether that was a good enough reason. So, getting back to the story… Sarah?"

"Right. Like I said, we all went up to the roof of the nearest building, where there was a little conflict between Casey and I about which agency got Chuck. Guns were pointed and threats were made, until eventually, Chuck ran towards the edge of the roof – I have no idea what you were trying to do by the way – and flashed on the hotel he mentioned before. Then I told him about the Intersect and he told us that a General was giving a speech in the hotel and there were some plans to plant the bomb there. Thanks to Chuck and the Intersect, which contained the blueprints that the NSA had intercepted, we found the bomb. Unfortunately, the timer was reaching the end and we didn't know how to disarm it because it was full of traps that would set it off if we cut any wires. Fortunately, the Nerd Herd can also help you with matters of national security." Sarah smiled proudly at Chuck and waved her hand, motioning for him to continue from where she had left off.

Chuck laughed and said, "I don't about that. I think we were just lucky that the bomb maker didn't have much of a budget and had to use the same computer model that we sold at the Buy More. It was the old Prism Express; not a bad model at the time, but it seriously lacked when it came to security, especially with anti-virus software. All it took was a quick visit to Miss Irene Demova's website and the computer's hard drive was fried. That was my first successful bomb disarming."

"Wait, wait. Let me get this straight. You, Chuck, my little brother, disarmed a bomb? Using a porn virus?"

"Yes and yes."

"Awesome!" Devon exclaimed, reaching over to fist bump Chuck.

"Chuck, you are officially the best best friend ever."

Sarah's smile grew wider. "Just wait until we tell you about the fruit juice."

"What? What's that got to do with bombs?" asked Alex.

"Sarah, stop giving things away!"

"Sorry, sorry."

"Alright, forget the juice then. But what did you do after that? You can't have just gone home and pretended everything was fine."

"I didn't. I'm sure Morgan, Ellie and Awesome remember that I didn't actually come home until the morning after mine and Sarah's date."

"So what did you do until then?"

"I went to the beach," Chuck responded simply. "I needed somewhere nice and quiet to calm myself down a bit. Eventually it was Sarah who made me actually get up and get on with my life. She came and sat by me in the morning, and she reassured me." Chuck squeezed Sarah's hand, still clutched in his, and gave her a warm, loving smile. He didn't want to go into too much detail about what they had discussed. It was a private moment meant only for them. It was the first time Chuck had realised that he could trust Sarah. It was the first time that Sarah had realised that this mission would be different. Because the CIA's best agent shouldn't break protocol before the mission has even started. Because a handler shouldn't spend an entire night at a beach, just to make sure that her asset is feeling alright.


End file.
